Social media is one of the best free ways to reach your customers. However to do this, you have to constantly be churning out engaging content day and night, week after week. With all of the other demands on your business, for the self-employed this can become overwhelming, especially if you’re also producing content for your company’s website in the first place! So what’s a small business owner to do?
Recycle! Content, that is. If you think that you’re done with a topic just because you’ve written about it and posted a link on Facebook, think again! Much of the content you already have on your website, brochures and other materials can be repurposed for the use of social media. If you’re not sure where to start, here are a few ways to breathe new life into old content.
1. Turn It Into An Image
Images are great tools for social media because they’re eye-catching and easy to share. Use that to your advantage by taking a fact or a quote from something you’ve posted and adding it to a picture. If you’re not comfortable using photo editing software, try a site that let’s you create your own quote graphics for free.
2. Turn It Into A Quiz
Do you have an article that’s chock-full of interesting facts? What better way to engage your followers than with a quiz? People like a challenge, and they also like to be “in the know.” A quiz hits both of those points by turning interesting facts into basic trivia questions. Additionally, you can attach a giveaway to your questions and really get people thinking.
3. Turn It Into An Infographic
Infographics are extremely popular, and it’s easy to see why. They break down information in an organized, illustrated, easy-to-digest fashion, and they benefit from my #1 point – images are easy to share! Infographics are basically the CliffsNotes of any subject, with the added bonus of being slapped onto a picture book. If you don’t have any artistic ability, you might want to start with something basic, or even hire a designer to tackle the project for you.
4. Split Up List Articles
List articles are usually easy reads, and the true social media value comes when you realize that each point in a list article is more than likely a topic that could stand on its own as a Facebook or Twitter post. Take this article for example – not only could all of these ideas be used to create social media posts, they can be used AS social media posts. What if you created an infographic that looks at how many people share images on Facebook or Pinterest and breaks down the best ways to share?
5. Turn It Into An Ebook
While writing an ebook might not actually be the best social media strategy, however, what you do with it is a completely different story. People love free stuff – especially if it’s something that has perceived value.
Do you have a good collection of content you’ve accumulated over the years? Grab a bunch of articles on the same topic and use them as a base to create an ebook. Once you have your ebook, post a link to a free chapter across all your social media sites. Better yet, offer the ebook for free to your followers and fans.
It’s clear that there are a variety of ways to take existing content and transform it into great content for social media. What are some of the ways you recycle your content? Share them in the comments section below!
